Biden says US and Germany are launching climate and energy partnership including joint plans to slash carbon emissions

• President Joe Biden announced that the US and Germany were planning to enter into a new climate and energy partnership.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visited the White House on Thursday.
• He also addressed protests in Cuba.

President Joe Biden revealed that the US and Germany are planning to enter into a new climate and energy partnership, an announcement made during German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to the White House on Thursday.

"Today, we're launching a climate and energy partnership to support energy security and the development of sustainable energy," Biden said at a joint press conference with Merkel.

According to a fact sheet distributed by the White House, the partnership will be co-chaired by John Kerry, the special presidential envoy on climate, and Jennifer Granholm, the energy secretary, as well as their German counterparts. It will focus on three areas of cooperation: developing joint plans to slash carbon emissions; collaboration on new green energy technologies; and assisting developing countries in addressing climate change.

Under the Paris Agreement, the US and Germany have committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest in an effort to avoid environmental catastrophe.

The partnership also aims to address the use of energy supplies as means of strong-arming nations, a topic Biden touched on at Thursday's press conference.

Noting concerns about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which would transport natural gas from Russia to Europe, Biden said that Moscow "must not be allowed to use energy as a weapon." Both leaders also addressed the extreme flooding in Germany that has left at least 45 people dead.

At the end, Biden was questioned by reporters about the protests going on in Cuba. "Communism is a failed system," he said, "and I don't see socialism as a very useful substitute, but that's another story."